-- Poets Need Hunger --
by John Herlihy
Poets need hunger, not a cartful of plenty,
A cup that needs filling when standing empty.
Filled with beauty thru visions of the eyes,
The poet as blind man with visions to devise.
Pulsating rhythms in the canals of the ears,
Silence waiting to be filled with smiles and tears.
Poetic words as nectar sweetening the tongue,
Honeyed verses that sweetly rhyme when sung.
Starved of affection, the poetic touch as caress,
Only hunger knows how each of the senses bless.
How we suffer without the uplifting sense of smell,
Smell the exotic flower as only the poet can tell.
Poetic lines, echoing nouns, adjectives, and tenses,
A poet’s words of wonder impacting the senses.
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Copyright ©John Herlihy
Sunday 28 July 2024
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Rebecca
I recall helping a Vietnamese gentlemen with translating the poems of Vietnamese prisoners held by the Vietcong. They were as spare and as sparse as their existence which offered little stimulation to write any poetry that went beyond their cry of hunger and release. Writing about picking rice and seeds from excrement of birds and animals. Aching bones and wishes for death.
Ron
Love ya!
Jane